


Breaking Point

by Masterweaver



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Post-Volume 5 (RWBY), Volume 6 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 05:19:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16633712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterweaver/pseuds/Masterweaver
Summary: The snow falls.Sisters talk.And things... things are said, that cannot be unsaid.





	Breaking Point

“What are you doing, Yang?”

Yang sighed. “Just… I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d check up on Bumblebee. You know. Don’t want her freezing in the middle of the night.” She ran her fingers through her golden locks, clearing some wet clumps from her hair. “You know, it never got this cold on Patch. How do people live with all this snow all the time?”

“You put the cover on before we went inside.”

“So I did. You know how it is, Ruby, sometimes you forget you did something that you needed to do, and you say ‘I need to check that.’ And, you know, I thought while I was out here I’d–”

“Check the fuel gauge?”

“…Don’t want to run out.” The golden hand moved away from the meter. “We might need to buy some Dust after all.”

“We did. This afternoon.” Ruby’s voice was quiet. “You specifically made sure to get Dust for her.”

“Yeah… well…”

“…What are you doing, Yang?”

Yang inhaled slowly. “…go back inside, Ruby. You need your rest–”

“What are you doing?”

“What does it  _look_  like I’m doing?” Yang snapped, her fingers curling up.

“It looks like you’re leaving.”

A slow sigh escaped Yang’s lips. “Look… Ruby, I just… can’t, anymore. Not after everything. I… you saw–I don’t… everything is just… I need some air, alright?”

For a moment, everything was quiet.

“…a walk around the village is fine,” Ruby said, her tone level. “But you’re preparing Bumblebee. There’s not enough road here to ride her–”

“So what if there’s not enough?! Can’t a girl go for a ride in the middle of the night? It’s no big deal–”

“It is if you don’t come back!”

The words hung in the air, frozen by the falling snow. Yang’s hand quavered on the motorcycle’s handle.

“…I can handle some Grimm, Ruby–”

“That’s not what…” Ruby’s voice cracked. “That’s… not what I meant. Not what I’m worried about. And you know it.”

“…Fine. Fine.” Yang spun around, narrowing her eyes. “Fine, let’s put it all out there. Yes, I’m leaving. Because there’s nobody in that house I can trust, alright? Not Ozpin, not Qrow, not Maria or Blake or–”

“Not even me?”

Yang couldn’t meet the silver eyes. “Ruby… I… want to trust you. I do. It’s just… you’re… young. Innocent… naive. You… how can you follow Ozpin, knowing what we know? You don’t ever ask questions, Rubes. I want to trust you, but–”

“I never ask questions?” Ruby laughed bitterly. “Really? I asked what Ozpin was hiding. You saw how that turned out.”

“…That’s not–” Yang shook her head. “Okay, but that was an extreme situation. My point is… you trust too easily, Ruby. You’re following this, this ancient wizard on an impossible quest, even after he hid the truth from you, even knowing that the enemy is too much for us to handle, and you don’t ever ask anything!”

“…You want me to start asking questions?”

There was something dangerous in Ruby’s voice. Something Yang couldn’t recognize. She stared at her little sister’s face, and found an expression she had only ever seen once before–in a bandit tent, on the face of a bandit queen.

“…Ruby–”

“Fine. I’ll start asking questions.” Ruby’s tone had a small bite to it, akin to the chill nipping at Yang’s ears. “Was being skipped ahead two years really the best thing for me? Am I sure that the construction of my team was just coincidence? All the unique opportunities I had, was I taking them away from somebody more deserving?”

Yang bit her lip. “Our time at Beacon–”

“How in the world do my silver eye powers work? Should I be using them more often? Could I have changed the fate of Beacon if I had known how to work them?”

She winced at the lilt of Ruby’s voice. “That’s sort of exactly–”

“How many people  _died_  because I didn’t know about my powers?! Why is it I’m the only one of my team that hasn’t been  _impaled_  or  _dismembered?!_  Is my mother even really  _dead?!”_

“Of course she’s dead!”

“Really? How do you know?”

“Dad told us–”

“Yes, Dad told us, back when we were kids, back when we didn’t  _know_  about magic or Ozpin or Salem–because, you know what? As horrible as telling two little girls their mother is dead is, it’s better than telling them that she’s been  _captured_  by an  _immortal witch_  and her  _deranged servants!”_

Yang flinched. “Ruby–”

“Maybe he doesn’t even know!” she continued on, throwing her arms wide as she started pacing. “Maybe  _uncle Qrow_  doesn’t know, maybe it’s only Raven or not even her, maybe everyone only thinks she’s dead! I keep wondering, Yang, about that headstone on a cliff, knowing there’s no body underneath it. I keep wondering if she’s locked in some unlit cell, being tortured right now. I keep wondering if Salem gouged out her eyes with… I keep… I keep wondering if she, she got thrown into that pool of darkness–”

“Ruby,” Yang murmured, her grip on the motorcycle slipping.

“I keep seeing myself… fighting some abomination of hers, about to strike the killing blow–” The snow trailed down her face, melting and merging with the already present dampness. “–and then we lock eyes, and we know, and she says my name even as she’s unable to stop herself and I have to–”

“STOP! JUST… just stop, Ruby, please!”

The snow had just about covered her boots, but she couldn’t concentrate on that, not when she saw the pain on her sister’s face.

“…Ruby… just… why… if you were thinking about that…” Yang swallowed. “Why… why didn’t you say anything?”

Ruby took a steadying breath. “I… I’m the team leader, Yang. I’m who the team needs me to be. And right now… right now everyone needs some sort of hope.” She sighed. “I know, I’m young and naive and innocent, and… I’ve seen how having somebody who smiles all the time, who’s willing to cheer everyone up helps them.”

“Oh gods… Ruby, I–”

“If I started asking all the questions I want to ask–that, maybe, I need to ask… I would be bogged down by… all the what-ifs, all the maybes. I need to keep moving forward. We need to keep moving forward. So… I only ask the questions that need to be asked. For the team.”

Yang glanced away. “…Ruby… I didn’t… I didn’t mean that I don’t trust  _you_. I… look, it’s just I could ask you to come with me, but you wouldn’t. We both know that. I just… I didn’t want to ask you to choose between me and…”

She trailed off.

“…You know, when we were growing up, Dad always told us stories of team STRQ.” Ruby managed a small, weak smile. “All their adventures. From the pranks they pulled in Beacon… to the missions across all of Remnant. We used to love those stories, didn’t we?”

Yang laughed, weakly. “Oh yeah. The time they saved all of Vacuo from a horde of griffons… I mean, that was probably exaggeration. Well, I guess it might not have been, knowing what we know now.”

“Dad was always so happy to tell us those stories. Uncle Qrow… well, he put up with our begging,” Ruby admitted with a shrug. “I always wondered, if team STRQ was so… incredible, then why did they split up?”

“I always thought it was because Raven left.”

Ruby shook her head. “No, I… I’ve seen what they are now. Uncle Qrow doesn’t believe in himself anymore. Raven, she… she can’t have faith in anyone. Dad, I don’t know if he’s given up on the world entirely, but he’s certainly not traveling anymore. Summer…” She took a breath. “I want to think she died. It’s a lot less horrific than the alternative. But even if she didn’t, she surrendered her freedom. All of that couldn’t have been just because Raven left… that feels more like a symptom, not the cause.”

Yang sighed, slowly. “…So what do you think, then?”

“They lost the ability to trust. To trust humanity, or Ozpin, or… each other. I don’t know how, all I know is that a once-great team has been broken and scattered around the world.”

Ruby met her sister’s eyes. “I… I don’t want us to end up like team STRQ, sis.”

The snow swirled around them. Now, it was up to their ankles.

“…Look.” Ruby glanced away. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe we should leave Ozpin and his impossible quest behind. I’ll allow that as a possibility. But we need to come to that decision  _as a team_. Weiss is depending on us to keep her safe from the… from the trials that wait for her in Atlas. Blake has left behind her family and her life’s work, just to make sure we get where we’re going. You…” She gestured at her arm. “You’ve had a lot taken from you, for no good reason whatsoever. And even if I am way too young for this, I am responsible for all of us. If you can’t trust Ozpin, or uncle Qrow… if you can’t even trust humanity… then please, trust us. To work together, to help each other, no matter what.”

Yang looked at her motorcycle. At the fuel gauge, ticked to mark a full tank.

Her fingers uncurled, leaving the handlebars. “…Damn it, what am I doing…?” She turned back to her sister. “Ruby, I, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me–”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine! I was about to–oh gods, I was about to–”

“But you didn’t,” Ruby said softly. “It’s going to be hard, I get that. But… that’s why we have teams. So that when it does get hard, we can help each other.”

Yang nodded. “I… okay.”

“…come on. Let’s go back inside. I think there might be a few cookies left.”

The blonde shook her head, a weak chuckle escaping despite herself. “Really. Cookies, after all that?”

“I mean… comfort food, right?”

“Of course. Hey… Rubes?” She put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Look. About… about Summer–”

Ruby winced. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t–”

“If you’re having nightmares, you know you can crawl into my bed, right? Like when we were kids.”

“…Okay. Thanks…”

“And… if we are a team… we should support each other in everything.”

Ruby groaned. “I’m going to need to tell Weiss and Blake, aren’t I?”

“…yeah. And…” Yang glanced over at Bumblebee. “I… I guess we’ll have to tell them about this, too.”

“…We’ll make it clear you’re staying. I promise.”

Yang shut her eyes for a moment. Then, suddenly, she pulled Ruby into a hug. “Just… don’t break yourself for us, okay?”

Ruby hugged her back. “Alright. I won’t.”


End file.
